Gazebo

Etymology

The etymology given by Oxford Dictionaries is "Mid 18th century: perhaps humorously from gaze, in imitation of Latin future tenses ending in -ebo: compare with lavabo." L. L. Bacon put forward a derivation from Casbah, a Muslim quarter around the citadel in Algiers. W. Sayers proposed Hispano-Arabic qushaybah, in a poem by Cordoban poet Ibn Quzman (d. 1160). The word gazebo appears in a mid-18th century English book by the architects John and William Halfpenny: Rural Architecture in the Chinese Taste. There Plate 55, "Elevation of a Chinese Gazebo", shows "a Chinese Tower or Gazebo, situated on a Rock, and raised to a considerable Height, and a Gallery round it to render the Prospect more complete."

George Washington had a small eight-sided garden structure at Mount Vernon. Thomas Jefferson wrote about gazebos, then called summerhouses or pavilions.

Design

Gazebos are freestanding or attached to a garden wall, roofed, and are often open on all sides. They provide shade, shelter from rain and a place to rest, while acting as an ornamental feature. Some gazebos in public parks are large enough to serve as a bandstand.

Types

Gazebos overlap with pavilions, kiosks, belvederes, follies, gloriettes, pergolas, and rotundas.

Such structures first appeared in Egyptian gardens approximately 5,000 years ago and appear in the literature of China, Persia and other classical civilizations.

Examples in England are the garden houses at Montacute House in Somerset. The gazebo at Elton on the Hill in Nottinghamshire, thought to date from the late 18th or early 19th century, is a square, crenelated, brick and stone tower with an arched opening. It acted as a focus for an extensive system of red-brick walled gardens, which has survived with some more modern additions.

In today's England and North America, gazebos are typically built of wood and covered with standard roofing materials, such as shingles. Gazebos can be tent-style structures of poles covered by tensioned fabric. Gazebos may have screens to aid in the exclusion of flying insects.

Temporary gazebos are often set up in the campsites of music festivals in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States, usually accompanying tents around them.

A structure resembling a gazebo, found in villages in the Maldives, is known as a holhuashi.

Gallery

File:Spitz Pavillon Hinterhaus-3233.jpg|Austria File:Slovakia Bratislava 947.jpg|Unique gazebo in Janko Kráľ Park is former gothic tower from the Franciscan church File:Greek-Style Gazebo 2.jpg|Greek-style gazebo in Longwood Gardens File:Bandstand at Royal Palace, Sarahan, HP, India.jpg|Bandstand at Royal Palace, Sarahan, India Image:Barrington IL Gazebo 1.jpg|A gazebo during winter, topped with a weather vane Image:Gazebo in Sam Houston Park -- Houston.jpg|Gazebo in Sam Houston Park, Houston, Texas Image:Gazebo Late 19th Century USA.JPG|Gazebo, United States, late 19th century Image:Foxmoor Park in Fox River Grove, Illinois.jpg|Weathered gazebo near a fishing hole in Fox River Grove, Illinois Image:Mohonk Mountain House 2011 Fishing Gazebo in Early Morning FRD 3158.jpg|A gazebo to shade fishing, Lake Mohonk, New York Image:15 18 0264 junaluska.jpg|Gazebo at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina Image:Ammand Dam (135).jpg|A two-story gazebo at Ammand Dam, Tabriz, Iran Image:Zabytkowa altana.JPG|Gazebo in Prudnik, Poland File:Kuopio - huvila.jpg|A small gazebo in Väinölänniemi, Kuopio, Finland

References

References

1. A longer definition appears in the Merriam-Webster Concise Encyclopedia: [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gazebo Retrieved 25 October 2012.]
2. "Cambridge English Dictionary".
3. "gazebo". Oxford University Press.
4. Bacon, Leonard Lee. "Gazebos and Alambras", ''American Notes and Queries'' 8:6 (1970): 87–87
5. William Sayers, ''Eastern prospects: Kiosks, belvederes, gazebos''. Neophilologus 87: 299–305, 2003.[https://doi.org/10.1023%2FA%3A1022691123957]
6. [http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/display.do?tabs=moreTab&ct=display&fn=search&doc=BLLSFX3360000000300917&indx=5&recIds=BLLSFX3360000000300917&recIdxs=4&elementId=4&renderMode=poppedOut&displayMode=full&frbrVersion=&frbg=&&dscnt=0&scp.scps=scope%3A%28BLCONTENT%29&vl(2084770704UI0)=any&tb=t&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&srt=rank&tab=local_tab&dum=true&vl(freeText0)=Halfpenny%20Rural%20Architecture%20in%20the%20Chinese%20Taste&dstmp=1600281560368 British Library catalogue. Retrieved 16 September 2020.]
7. "Thomas Jefferson Papers".
8. The word as applied to late medieval structures in Iran and Turkey corresponds to a gazebo. The modern English senses of a street stall or a telephone box do not. ''Collins English Dictionary'': "(in Turkey, Iran, etc., esp. formerly) a light open-sided pavilion."
9. [http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-425567-gazebo-in-grounds-of-former-elton-manor- British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 25 October 2012.]